Pliny the Elder, The Natural History, BOOK XXXII.<a id="note-link1" href="#note1">1</a> REMEDIES DERIVED FROM AQUATIC ANIMALS., CHAP. 46.—REMEDIES FOR FEMALE DISEASES. THE GLAUCISCUS: ONE REMEDY. <a href="#note-link1">1</a> It is in the last six Books of Pliny, and those only, we regret to say, that we are enabled to avail ourselves of the new readings of the Bamberg MS., which has been so admirably collated by M. Ian. In a vast number of passages previously looked upon as hopelessly corrupt, or else not at all suspected of being in a mutilated state, this MS. supplies words and clauses, the existence of which in the original was hitherto unknown; indeed by its aid the indefatigable Sillig has been enabled, if we may be allowed the term, almost to rewrite the last six Books of Pliny. From a perusal of these new readings, as Dr. Smith has justly remarked, we have reason to infer "that the text of the earlier Books is still in a very defective state, and that much of the obscurity of Pliny may be traced to this cause."</p>

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CHAP. 46.—REMEDIES FOR FEMALE DISEASES. THE GLAUCISCUS: ONE REMEDY.

The milk is increased in females by eating the glauciscus¹ in its own liquor, or else smarides² with a ptisan, or boiled with fennel. Ashes of calcined shells of the murex or purple, applied with honey, are an effectual cure for affections of the mamillæ; river-crabs, too, and sea-crabs, applied topically, are equally good. The meat of the murex, applied to the mamillæ, removes hairs³ growing upon those parts. The squatina,⁴ applied topically, prevents the mamillæ from becoming too distended. Lint greased with dolphin's⁵ fat, and then ignited, produces a smoke which acts as an excitant upon females suffering from hysterical suffocations; the same, too, with strombi,⁶ left to putrefy in vinegar. Heads of perch or of mænæ,⁷ calcined and mixed with salt, oil, and cunila,⁸ are curative of diseases of the uterus: used as a fumigation, they bring away the afterbirth. Fat,⁹ too, of the sea-calf, melted by the agency of fire, is introduced into the nostrils of females when swooning from hysterical suffocations; and for a similar purpose, the rennet of that animal is applied as a pessary, in wool.

The pulmo marinus,¹⁰ attached to the body as an amulet, is an excellent promoter of menstruation; an effect which is equally produced by pounding live sea-urchins, and taking them in sweet wine. River-crabs,¹¹ bruised in wine, and taken internally, arrest menstruation. The silurus,¹² that of Africa¹³ more particularly, used as a fumigation, facilitates parturition, it is said. Crabs, taken in water, arrest menstruation; but used with hyssop, they act as an emmenagogue, we are told. In cases, too, where the infant is in danger of suffocation at the moment of delivery, a similar drink, administered to the mother, is highly efficacious. Crabs, too, either fresh or dried, are taken in drink, for the purpose of preventing abortion. Hippocrates¹⁴ prescribes them as a promoter of menstruation, and as an expellent of the dead fœtus, beaten up with five¹⁵ roots of lapathum and rue and some soot, and administered in honied wine. Crabs, boiled and taken in their liquor, with lapathum¹⁶ and parsley, promote the menstrual discharge, and increase the milk. In cases of fever, attended with pains in the head and throbbing of the eyes, crabs are said to be highly beneficial to females, given in astringent wine.

Castoreum,¹⁷ taken in honied wine, is useful as a promoter of menstruation: in cases of hysterical suffocation, it is given to the patient to smell at with pitch and vinegar, or else it is made up into tablets and used as a pessary. For the purpose also of bringing away the afterbirth it is found a useful plan to employ castoreum with panax,¹⁸ in four cyathi of wine; and in cases where the patient is suffering from cold, in doses of three oboli. If, however, a female in a state of pregnancy should happen to step over castoreum, or over the beaver itself, abortion, it is said, will be the sure result: so, too, if castoreum is only held over a pregnant woman's head, there will be great danger of miscarriage.

There is a very marvellous fact, too, that I find stated in reference to the torpedo:¹⁹ if it is caught at the time that the moon is in Libra, and kept in the open air for three days, it will always facilitate parturition, as often as it is introduced into the apartment of a woman in labour. The sting, too, of the pastinaca,²⁰ attached to the navel, is generally thought to have the property of facilitating delivery: it must be taken, however, from the fish while alive; which done, the fish must be returned to the sea. I find it stated by some authorities that there is a substance called "ostraceum," which is also spoken of as "onyx"²¹ by others; that, used as a fumigation, it is wonderfully beneficial for suffocations of the uterus; that in smell it resembles castoreum, and is still more efficacious, if burnt with this last substance; and that in a calcined state it has the property of healing inveterate ulcers, and cancerous sores of a malignant nature. As to carbuncles and carcinomatous sores upon the secret parts of females, there is nothing more efficacious, it is said, than a female crab beaten up, just after full moon, with flower of salt²² and applied with water.

1 This fish has not been identified. It is possible, however, that it may be the same as the "glaucus" mentioned in B. ix. c. 25.

2 See Note 69 above.

3 See B. xxvi. c. 92.

4 See B. ix. cc. 14, 40, 67.

5 An asserted remedy, founded, as Ajasson remarks, upon nothing but a pun, the resemblance between δελφῖς, a "dolphin," and δελφὺς, the "womb."

6 See Chapters 29 and 39 of this Book.

7 See B. ix. c. 42.

8 See B. xx. c. 65.

9 In other words, seal-oil.

10 Or sea-lungs. See Chapter 36 of this Book.

11 Or crawfish.

12 See B. ix. c. 17; also Chapter 43 of this Book.

13 Meaning Egypt, probably; see the passages referred to in the preceding note.

14 De Morb. Mulier. I. 128.

15 We would adopt the suggestion of M. Ian, and read "quinis cum." in preference to "cum quinis;" "five crabs with roots of lapathum and rue."

16 See B. xx. c. 85.

17 See Chapter 13 of the present Book.

18 See B. xii. c. 57.

19 See B. ix. cc. 24, 48, 74, 75.

20 Or sting-ray. See B. ix. c. 72.

21 The callosity is here meant, Hardouin supposes, which covers the purple in the shell. See Chapter 41 of this Book.

22 "Salis flore." See B. xxxi. c. 42.

The Natural History. Pliny the Elder. John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S. H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A. London. Taylor and Francis, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street. 1855.

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Pliny the Elder, The Natural History
John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S., H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A., Ed.

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CHAP. 46.—REMEDIES FOR FEMALE DISEASES. THE GLAUCISCUS: ONE REMEDY.

Pliny the Elder, The Natural History John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S., H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A., Ed.

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CHAP. 46.—REMEDIES FOR FEMALE DISEASES. THE GLAUCISCUS: ONE REMEDY.

Pliny the Elder, The Natural History
John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S., H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A., Ed.